Foldscope origami microscope!

[iSchool]

Holy crow, guys.

There's a team out of Stanford that's developing a foldable paper microscope. And they're looking for beta testers for this summer. A microscope I can take to the park or on a hike without watching it like a paranoid hawk? Sign. Me. Up.

Here's the blurb from the site:
"Foldscope is an origami-based print-and-fold optical microscope that can be assembled from a flat sheet of paper. Although it costs less than a dollar in parts, it can provide over 2,000X magnification with sub-micron resolution (800nm), weighs less than two nickels (8.8 g), is small enough to fit in a pocket (70 × 20 × 2 mm3), requires no external power, and can survive being dropped from a 3-story building or stepped on by a person. Its minimalistic, scalable design is inherently application-specific instead of general-purpose gearing towards applications in global health, field based citizen science and K12-science education."

www.foldscope.com (http://www.foldscope.com)

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with this project at all except that I REALLY wanna be in the beta program!

[Andi]

There's a TED talk on the development of this also. The presenter is Manu Prakash.

Here's the talk on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8cF5QPPmWU

[ikslo]

So...I signed up to receive a Foldscope when iSchool originally posted this, and I recently saw an article about the project in the Wall Street Journal. Today I received an email updating me on the status of the project (and my application). They are a little behind in production, but gosh, with a six person team and an overwhelming number of responses they received, it is no wonder!

Anyway, if you are interested in their blog, it is here:10K microscope project updates blog ? Foldscope: Origami based print and fold paper-microscope (http://www.foldscope.com/10kmicroscope-project-blog/)

I can't wait for DS to get his hands on one of these!

[CrazyMom]

That's really neato! Cool idea:)